I’m looking into jointers. I noticed that the Grizzly 6” spiral head and 8” normal (linear i guess) head are about the same price. Do the extra 1.5 hp, longer bed and 2” capacity equal or surpass the helical head? It seems like quite a premium for a spiral cutter.

Ditto – 8 inch. Get the capacity – - the ability to actually joint a drawerfront or wider stock, in addition to being able to joint LONGER pieces with the longer tables will far outweigh the cutterhead.

The helical cutter heads are great – but capacity trumps it easily.

-- “The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.” ― H.L. Mencken, Minority Report